The Mysterious Disappearance of the Shoes
by Goldencity
Summary: Dustfinger asks Farid where his shoes are. Farid has a very interesting explanation...Takes place shortly after Inkheart.


_Disclaimer: The amazing Ink trilogy belongs to Cornelia Funke, not me._

_Author's note: This takes place shortly after Inkheart. If you notice that any if the characters seem out of character, it's supposed to be like that. So, in Inkheart it mentions that Farid burned the shoes Dustfinger had bought him because they were so uncomfortable. 'Hmm,' thought I, 'I wonder when Dustfinger found out he destroyed them?' And so a new Inkheart fanfic was born. Enjoy...  
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Dustfinger sighed and stretched his legs out on the grass. After walking nearly all day, it felt good to finally rest a bit.

Farid, however, apparently shared none of his companion's tiredness, for as soon as they had stopped he had lit a match and started practicing a new trick Dustfinger had begun teaching him, as full of energy as ever.

"Look, I think I almost have it!" Farid said excitedly.

"You're going at it too fast," Dustfinger said, his face expressionless, hiding that he was astonished at how well the boy was working with fire.

Farid put the matches up. "I'm hungry," he stated. "It's probably close to supper time now."

"Our food's out." Dustfinger stood up. "There's a town nearby; we'll stop at the nearest fast food restaurant," he said reluctantly.

"You mean one of the places with all the blinking lights and weird signs?" Farid asked hopefully.

Dustfinger nodded, then smiled slightly when the boy let out a whoop of excitement. Unlike himself, Farid loved cars, moving pictures, and lit up signs.

He glanced at Farid's bare feet. "You can't go in a restaurant like that. Get your shoes on."

The boy didn't seem to have heard him.

"Farid, I said get your shoes on," Dustfinger repeated impatiently.

"Hmm..." Farid said slowly. "Shoes. Yes, _shoes. _Umm..." He glanced around, then said apologetically, "They don't seem to be here."

Dustfinger rolled his eyes. "Where are they?"

"Well, first of all, _I _am not in any way to blame for the mysterious disappearance of the shoes."

"That's nice. What happened to them?"

"Like, for instance, I certainly didn't destroy them or anything," Farid continued. "_You _gave them to me, Dustfinger, and any gift that you give me I'll treasure forever! So I obviously didn't do anything to harm them."

"I see. Then why do you seem incapable of putting them on?"

"Because they're not here," Farid said as if it were very obvious.

"Yes, I can see that they're not _here,_" Dustfinger said impatiently. "_Where _are they?"

Farid thought for a moment. Then his face lit up. He pointed at the marten on Dustfinger's shoulder and cried dramatically, "It was Gwin! Gwin _stole_ them!"

Dustfinger suppressed a smile. "Gwin stole your shoes?" he said disbelievingly.

"Yes!" Farid said, nodding eagerly.

"Why did he do that?"

"Because his feet were cold! So he had to steal my shoes, because unfortunately you never bought _him _any." He looked at Dustfinger reproachfully, causing him to smile again.

"He couldn't steal yours because they were on your feet," Farid continued, "and he tried to buy some from a shoe store, but he could find any to his liking. Which is why he had no other option left except to steal mine," he concluded, sighing regretfully.

Dustfinger didn't say anything; he was busy trying not to laugh. The thought of the marten stealing the boy's shoes was really quite ridiculous.

"But I, of course, couldn't just sit back and allow such a thing to happen!" Farid continued, oblivious to the man's amusement. "After Gwin so rudely snatched my shoes out of my hands, which had been stroking them, he ran off. So I chased him, but he was so fast that I couldn't catch up and take them back."

He paused for breath and Dustfinger waited silently for the boy to go on.

"So I followed him for a while, and then finally Gwin stopped at an abandoned castle. Oh, and the inside of it was filled with balloons!" Farid added excitedly, looking like he was having a lot of fun telling his story.

"And then," he continued, his voice lowering dramatically, "in the midst of all the brightly colored balloons, a man appeared."

"He just suddenly _appeared _there?" Dustfinger asked. "Out of nowhere?"

"No, he didn't just appear out of nowhere," Farid answered, looking slightly annoyed. "He sort of slipped out of the gloom and shadows."

"Gloom and shadows? I thought you said the castle was filled with brightly colored balloons," Dustfinger pointed out.

"Just stop asking questions," Farid said irritably. "You're ruining the suspense!"

"Oh, well you have my sincere apologies for that," Dustfinger said, smiling slightly and rolling his eyes.

"Well anyway," Farid continued, his voice low and suspenseful again, "from the gloom, shadows, and brightly colored balloons, a man stepped out."

He paused for dramatic effect, which was ruined the next moment when he demanded excitedly, "Guess who it was!"

"Oh, er..." Dustfinger started, taken aback. "I don't know, who was it?"

"You're supposed to guess!"

"Umm..."

"Oh, fine, I'll tell you," Farid said. "It was Basta! Gwin, who was still holding my shoes, stopped in front of him. And then-" Suddenly he abruptly stopped, frowning slightly. "What was that stuff you bought yesterday?"

"What are you talking about?" Dustfinger asked, bemused.

"You know," Farid said impatiently, "it was delicious, and they didn't have it in my world..."

"Oh, do you mean chocolate?"

"Yes, _chocolate! _That was _so _good!" A dreamy expression came over his face.

"What does chocolate have to do with Gwin and your shoes?" Dustfinger asked, quite confused.

"Well, _Gwin _also loves chocolate. So when Basta offered him some in exchange for a pair of shoes, he stole mine to take to Basta."

"But earlier you said that Gwin took your shoes because his feet were cold," Dustfinger said.

Farid frowned. "Oh, well, his feet _were _cold. But so were Basta's, which was why _he _also wanted my shoes. And Gwin decided it would be worth having cold feet if he had chocolate, so he dropped my shoes at Basta's feet. But then," he continued tragically, "instead of giving Gwin chocolate like he promised, Basta revealed that he had eaten the chocolate himself!"

He paused and looked at Dustfinger, as if waiting for him to emit some horrified exclamation. When he didn't, Farid continued, "But by then Basta had realized I was there, too, and he was about to set his dragon on me- Basta recently got a dragon, by the way, he found one for a good price at a bookstore- when Meggie threw the heavy brick she was wearing as a necklace at him. And-"

"Meggie?" Dustfinger broke in, confused.

"Yes, she's Silvertongue's daughter-" Farid said quickly.

"Yes, I _know _who she is, but what was she doing there? You didn't mention her before."

"Oh, I didn't?" Farid said. "Well, I'm not quite sure _why _she was there. We didn't have much time to talk, you see, but I think she said something about looking for the books the spiders stole from her...Don't ask me what _that _was about," he added, seeing Dustfinger's bewildered expression.

"_Anyway, _after she knocked Basta unconcious with her brick necklace we got Gwin and and my shoes, which I was _very _relieved to have again," he added, "and left the castle.

"Meggie went back to her house, and I set off to find you again, full of joy from my reunion with my beloved shoes. But then I ran into a lion!"

"A lion?" Dustfinger repeated.

"Yes!" Farid said, nodding. "It was just standing there in the middle of the road! And I guess it must have been hungry, 'cause when it saw my shoes it ate them. And _that_," he finished, shaking his head sadly, "is why I don't have my shoes. And as you can see," Farid added, "_I _am in no way to blame for the loss of those fine shoes, as I said earlier."

"Hmm," Dustfinger said lightly, "Where was _I _when all this took place?"

"Oh, you were asleep," Farid answered quickly. "It was the middle of the night, you see. The middle of last night, to be exact."

For a moment there was silence.

"Well," Dustfinger said, "I must say, that was quite an interesting story. Very creative. But what _really _happened to your shoes?"

"What? I just told you! Do you really want me to repeat all that again?"

Dustfinger rolled his eyes. "I'm not that gullible. That obviously wasn't the true version. And while it was entertaining, I'd like to hear the real explanation now."

Farid sighed, apparently realizing that he couldn't convince Dustfinger his tale was true. Then he shrugged and said, "Oh, fine. I burned the shoes up."

"_What?_" Dustfinger said, not amused anymore. "You _burned _them?"

"They were _uncomfortable!_" Farid whined. "I hated them!"

Dustfinger rolled his eyes again. "They cost money, you know!"

"So? You can always just earn _more _money, can't you?" the boy pointed out.

Dustfinger couldn't think of a reply to that. Finally he just turned away and picked up his backpack, exasperated. "Well, don't expect me to ever buy you any more shoes."

"Yes, okay," Farid said impatiently. "Now let's go eat, I'm starving!"

"They might not let you into the restaurant without shoes," Dustfinger said doubtfully.

"Of course they will," the boy said confidently. "If we just explain to them _why _I don't have any."

"Because you burned them?"

"No, I mean the _other _explanation. The more interesting one. If we tell them how Gwin stole them and then a lion ate them they'll have to let us in."

"Really? I think it's more likely they'll kick us out for being stupid."

Farid rolled his eyes. "Well we won't know until we get there, so come on."

_A/N: Hope you enjoyed! REVIEW please! You'll make me veerrryy happy if you do! _

_If you liked this, you might also like my stories Poking and Boredom, Dad?, and Stubble._


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